'Stick Fly' breaks barriers (and maybe a few hearts)
'Stick Fly' runs at Theatre Charlotte, 501 Queens Road, through June 1
This review by longtime Charlotte arts critic Lawrence Toppman was published by The Charlotte Ledger on May 18, 2025. You can find out more about The Charlotte Ledger’s commitment to smart local news and information and sign up for our newsletter for free here. Ledger subscribers can add the Toppman on the Arts newsletter on their “My Account” page.
Review: Theatre Charlotte’s ‘Stick Fly’ brings class, race and family tensions to a boil in a messy but meaningful way
“Stick Fly” takes place about 25 years ago as a family gathers at their opulent summer home in Martha’s Vineyard and grapples with issues of race, family and romantic dynamics. (Photo by Kyle J. Britt/Theatre Charlotte)
by Lawrence Toppman
I already knew I liked “Stick Fly,” but I especially like it in May.
Fifteen years ago, the play now at Theatre Charlotte would almost certainly have been scheduled in February, as the inevitable homage to Black History Month. Its appearance this month shows two things: 1) Theatre Charlotte doesn’t feel bound by convention and 2) Lydia Diamond’s drama deals with race while moving beyond that subject to a broader exploration of family and romantic dynamics.
Diamond wants to extract every bit of juice from the conflicts besetting six people in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., about 25 years ago. That makes for a messy, occasionally repetitive evening, but not one that feels boring. (I was reminded a bit of the even longer “August: Osage County.”)
I wouldn’t dare to argue that the depiction of prosperous African-Americans is accurate — arguments roil in the play when a white character presumes intimate knowledge of Black life — but it seems real to me. And the locking of horns between the generations, male siblings, both races and both sexes should resonate with anybody.
The play takes place when nobody had cell phones, a key factor in the story, and Black people were still more of a rarity at the upper echelons of medicine and education. Subtly controlling neurosurgeon Joe Levay (Keith Logan) gathers at his opulent summer house with sons Kent (Sha’Heed J. Brooks) and Flip (Jonathan Caldwell) and their respective girlfriends, Taylor (Germôna Sharp) and Kimber (Rachel Dawson). Cheryl (Chloe Shade), the daughter of their longtime but now seriously ill housekeeper, has come to take care of them for the duration.
Social worker Kimber, least self-conscious of these six, ought to feel most ill at ease: She’s a white intruder in a world where even well-educated, financially successful Black people feel judged as second-class citizens. Her attempts to express solidarity with entomologist Taylor, whose work with insects convolutedly justifies the play’s title, and Cheryl, who has just graduated from a top Manhattan high school, go awry. Taylor and Cheryl also rub each other raw, mostly over issues of class.
The smug yet often insightful Joe has anointed Flip, a money-hungry plastic surgeon, as his (non)spiritual heir. Younger brother Kent, who has amassed unused college degrees and now believes he should become a novelist, is deemed an eccentric if tolerable failure by Levay standards. Our sympathies go more quickly to the women, however confused they may be about their own standing in both the black and white worlds.
The play has two secrets, the smaller one dependent on the larger. Diamond doesn’t spring them until the second act, though I think you’ll see both of them coming. That doesn’t lessen their impact, and Diamond wisely reveals what happened but doesn’t resolve the situations. In fact, she doesn’t resolve any situations: The characters all walk away with more self-knowledge after a lot of pain, but we can’t be sure what they plan to do with it.
All six actors have firm grips on their roles, though I wished Caldwell and Shade had projected better vocally on opening night. That the play never drags is due in equal measure to them and director Sidney Horton, who moves them around smartly on Dani Vanasse’s multi-tiered set.
Before the show, Horton received the North Carolina Theatre Conference’s Marion A. Smith Distinguished Career Award, a follow-up to NCTC’s Herman Middleton Distinguished Service Award in 2016. I’ve watched the unassuming, multi-talented Horton as both actor and director for 35 years, while he worked with almost every major theater in the region, and he proved again last weekend that he deserves the acclaim.
If You’re Going: “Stick Fly” runs at Theatre Charlotte, 501 Queens Road, through June 1. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 3 p.m. Sundays.
Lawrence Toppman covered the arts for 40 years at The Charlotte Observer before retiring in 2020. Now, he’s back in the critic’s chair for the Charlotte Ledger — look for his reviews several times each month in the Charlotte Ledger.
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